What an interesting study—and such a useful review!  Thanks, John and Barbara!
Judith


Judith Yaross Lee, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies

Charles E. Zumkehr Professor of Rhetoric & Culture
Director, Central Region Humanities Center
School of Communication Studies
Ohio University
Schoonover Center 439
Athens, Ohio 45701
T: 740-593-4888
F: 740-593-4810

My newest book: Twain's Brand:  Humor in Contemporary American Culture <http://www.ohio.edu/people/leej/Twains_Brand.html>

On Oct 8, 2018, at 7:07 AM, Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

The following review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by John Bird.
~~~~~

_Gears and God: Technocratic Fiction, Faith, and Empire in Mark Twain's
America_. By Nathaniel Williams. University of Alabama Press, 2018. Pp.
206. Hardcover $44.95. ISBN 978-0-8173-1984-7.

Many books reviewed on the Mark Twain Forum are available at discounted
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Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
John Bird

Copyright (c) 2018 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.


Mark Twain's relation to technology, religion, and imperialism has been
examined by a number of scholars, especially in recent years, but these
topics have not been examined together, and they have certainly not been
examined in light of proto-science fiction dime novels. In _Gears and God_,
Nathaniel Williams has done just that. While only one of his study's six
chapters focuses solely on Twain, his thoroughly researched book sheds
light on Twain by placing him in a context that has been previously
ignored. The result is a study that succeeds in opening up new vistas in
Twain criticism.


Williams's introduction, "This is Religion and Totally Different," relates
_Tom Sawyer Abroad_ (1894) to the "boy inventor" dime novels of the time,
over 300 of them, which melded travel, technology, and Christian
exceptionalism. Williams states that he wants to accomplish two things:
"reevaluation of the portrayal of empire that has pervaded earlier,
genre-exclusive studies of these texts, and a consideration of their role
in larger nineteenth-century conversations about science and technology's
impact on religious faith" (5). In six chapters, he achieves those two
goals.


Ch.1, "Inventing the Technocratic Exploration Tale: God, Gears, and
Empire," examines how "American dime-novel invention stories performed
significant cultural work in the United States" (13). Science fiction
scholars have called this dime novel sub-genre "Edisonades," after the
inventor, but Williams adds the term "technocratic exploration tales" (14),
emphasizing technocracy as a building block of empire. He shows how these
texts both justified and undermined American imperialism.


In his second chapter, "Building Imperialists: The Steam Man, 'Used Up'
Man, and the Man in the Moon," Williams covers the early development of the
sub-genre, looking back to Washington Irving's 1809 tale of an invasion of
the Earth by the Moon, and to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Man That Was Used Up"
(1839), about a soldier who has lost his limbs in the Indian Wars, and
through the use of prosthetic devices becomes what science fiction scholars
have called the first cyborg in fiction. His overview culminates with an
1868 dime novel by Edward S. Ellis, _The Steam Man of the Prairies_, which
has been accepted as the first American science fiction novel. This early
text set the prototype for the genre: a boy inventor and his steam-driven
automaton, embarking on travel and adventure to conquer the West.


Ch. 3, "Imagining Inventors: Frank Reade and Dime-Novel Technocratic
Exploration," focuses on boy inventor Frank Reade Jr., the subject of many
dime novels, written by Luis Philip Senarens, a prolific Cuban American
writer. Frank Reade Jr. uses technology to travel to distant places,
interfere in events, and right wrongs, which Williams aligns with Twain's
_A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_. A few of the titles give a
sense of the inventions and the locales: _Frank Reade, Jr., and His Steam
Wonder_, _Frank Reade, Jr., and His Electric Boat_, _Frank Reade, Jr., and
His Air-Ship_, _Frank Reade, Jr.'s Great Electric Tricycle_, _Frank Reade,
Jr., and His Electric Prairie Schooner; or Fighting the Mexican Horse
Thieves_, _Adrift in Africa; or Frank Reade, Jr., among the Ivory Hunters
with His New Electric Wagon_, and _Frank Reade, Jr.'s Electric Buckboard;
or, Thrilling Adventures in North Australia_. His analysis of the Frank
Reade Jr. novels chronicles the shift from American settings to
international ones, including coverage of the Cuban Revolution, with
Senarens siding with Cuba. One reason for the uproar over _Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn_, Williams argues, was the perceived deleterious effects
of dime novels on American youth. Williams moves to religious matters in
his fourth chapter, "Discovering Biblical Literalism: Frank Reade Redux,"
documenting a turn toward biblical issues: plots that found lost tribes and
identified with conservative, literal interpretations of the Bible.


All of this background leads to the chapter that will be of most interest
to Twainians, Ch. 5, "Confronting 'Fol-de-Rol': Mark Twain, Technocracy,
and Religion." Williams begins with an interesting focus, the lost
manuscript of Orion Clemens's technocratic exploration novel, _The Kingdom
of Sir John Franklin_, about a trip to the Earth's core. Although we do not
have the manuscript, we do have Twain's 1877-1878 letters to his brother,
offering criticism and advice about the novel-in-progress. Twain noted that
Jules Verne had already published such a novel, _Journey to the Center of
the Earth_ (1864; English translation 1872), which Orion claimed he had not
read. Orion's text was full of religious doubt, and Twain counseled his
brother to tone that down in consideration of his audience.


Williams then moves to an examination of a number of Twain works that fit
the sub-genre, beginning with his abandoned 1884 novel, _Huck Finn and Tom
Sawyer Among the Indians_, Twain's first work that combines exploration,
religion, and technology. The text has long been read as a debunking of
romanticized notions of Native Americans, notions that came from James
Fenimore Cooper, but Williams suggests the notions could also have come
from dime novels. He also notes Twain's sympathetic portrayal of Native
American spirituality.


A Connecticut Yankee_ clearly fits Williams's tri-partite thesis, as he
argues that Hank Morgan's introduction of 19th century technology to 6th
century England is an imperialist effort, thwarted by religion. He states,
"Twain makes technophilia one of the defining elements of his protagonist,"
along with Hank Morgan's desire "to enact nationwide religious reform, to
surreptitiously attack the Church and expound at length on the best methods
to undermine it" (114). He continues: "Underlying _A Connecticut Yankee_ is
the notion that these two elements are tied together, that reform means
simultaneously undercutting spiritual authority and introducing new
technology, and more importantly that the Church will be
threatened--perhaps quite justifiably--by science and technology and will
attempt to quash it" (114).


Williams then turns to _Tom Sawyer Abroad_ (1894), which again unites
technology, imperialism, and religion, as Tom, Huck, and Jim go on a
crusade, by balloon. Williams makes an excellent reading of Twain's satire
of imperialism in a work that has long been considered merely a weak
sequel. He continues the recent trend of taking _Tom Sawyer Abroad_ more
seriously. Tom Sawyer and Hank Morgan are both "limited technocrats," he
argues (130).


The final chapter, "Reconstructing Biblical History: Technocratic
Explorations, 1899-1910," moves from dime novels to more conventional
novels, including one of special interest to Twainians, Albert Bigelow
Paine's _The Great White Way_ (1901), about a polar expedition that
discovers a harmonious population at the South Pole, a satire of
capitalism, imperialism, and Christian liberalism. In his conclusion,
"Technocratic Exploration's Legacy," Williams recounts the subsequent
arguments over religion and science, especially Darwinism, arguments that
continue today, including intelligent design.


_Gears and God_ is important for the way it places Mark Twain's works
within the context of dime novels that link technology, imperialism, and
religion, all important topics in Twain studies. While Williams is careful
not to claim that Twain was a reader of such popular sub-genre fiction, his
study shows that Twain was part of a broader cultural movement that has not
been fully explored. Others have looked at technology, imperialism, and
religion in Twain's life and work, but not linked in this way, through the
lens of dime novels of invention, exploration, and religious faith.
Williams mentions the Paige typesetter, but he might have devoted more
attention to Twain's personal relation with other new technologies of his
time: his early embrace of the telephone, the typewriter, and the bicycle,
among others, as well as his ambivalence toward that technology.
Nevertheless, _Gears and God_ is an important contribution to our
understanding of Mark Twain in his historical and cultural moment, a book
that at once deepens the commentary on technology, imperialism, and
religion and opens up new and interesting ground.